This invention relates to a system for harvesting vine crops, such as tomatoes.
Large fields of tomatoes are commonly harvested by self-propelled tomato harvesters. An example of such a harvester is the tomato harvester made available by Johnson Machinery Company, Inc. of Woodland, Calif. A large scale harvester is also sold by California. Tomato Machinery (CTM) of Madera, California. Representative tomato harvesters are also shown in the following United States Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,519, issued May 31, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,570, issued Jun. 22, 1982, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,269, issued Mar. 30, 1993.
Large scale tomato harvesters such as those made available by Johnson Farm Machinery Company, Inc. and CTM retrieve the tomato plants or vines from the ground. The tomatoes are separated on the basis of color, the ripe tomatoes accepted and the unripe tomatoes rejected on the basis of color detection by an electronic color sorter including a detector and associated movable fingers or pushers actuated thereby. The detected ripe tomatoes are typically conveyed to a truck alongside the harvester and the detected unripe tomatoes, the rejected tomatoes, are returned to the ground.
It is desirable to capture or retain as many ripe tomatoes as possible but it is inherent in electronic color sorter systems that a certain number of ripe tomatoes will be inadvertently or incorrectly rejected and discarded. There are a number of reasons for this. For example, a ripe or red tomato may be disposed behind an unripe or green tomato when the detection and sorting steps take place, causing the ripe tomatoes to be unintentionally rejected. Also, a tomato may not be red in is its entirety and the sorter system employed may sense a green end rather than a red end and reject the tomato. And, of course, accompanying dirt and vine portions can interfere with the proper operation of the sorter system.
It is known to catch culls or rejected tomatoes on a separate conveyor wherein the culls are further sorted in an attempt to retrieve ripe tomatoes by a totally separate detection and sorter system dealing strictly with the culls. This is an expensive arrangement. Furthermore, the arrangement is relatively inefficient since not only red or ripe culled tomatoes are passed through the separate detector and sorter system along with green or unripe tomatoes, but also dirt, plant portions or other materials other than the tomatoes themselves. In addition, use of a separate conveyor extending between the side conveyors of the harvester machine as is the case with this known prior art can expose people working on the tomato harvester to a greater risk of injury.
The present invention relates to a system which relatively inexpensively, efficiently and effectively provides for separation of ripe fruit such as tomatoes from the tomato vines. The system employees the existing color detectors and sorters of a tomato harvester to detect and retain ripe or red tomatoes which have been inadvertently included in the culls. The culled red or ripe tomatoes are in effect recycled through the conventional color detector and sorter of the system to attain this result.
The harvester apparatus of the present invention is for separating ripe fruit from harvested plants. The harvester apparatus includes a first separator for separating loose fruit from harvested plants. The apparatus additionally includes a first sorter for sorting loose fruit separated by the first separator by detecting the color thereof and selectively accepting or rejecting the loose fruit separated by the first separator on the basis of the color thereof.
A second separator is provided for receiving harvested plants from the first separator after loose fruit has been separated therefrom by the first separator for separating additional loose fruit from the harvested plants received thereby from the first separator.
A second sorter receives loose fruit from the second separator and sorts the loose fruit received from the second separator by detecting the color of the loose fruit received from the second separator and selectively accepting or rejecting the loose fruit received from the second separator on the basis of the detected color thereof.
Transport means is provided for transporting loose fruit rejected by the second sorter to the first sorter for further sorting by the first sorter.
The present invention also encompasses a method for separating ripe fruit from harvested plants.